Joseph Smith – A Man Like Unto Moses? Assessment of a Man Called a Prophet of God

When I become 18 years of age, overdue within the year 1970, I became deceptively introduced by way of a persuasive high college German trainer to the devilishly insipid specter of a protracted-lifeless 19th Century guy, Joseph Smith, Jr., that, today, continues to loom over the minds of hundreds of thousands of God’s youngsters as a cult of persona within the guise of what they trust to be a modern day prophet proclaimed to be a man within the likeness of Moses. That’s what I become told, that Joseph Smith turned into a prophet “like unto Moses,” having recognized not anything in any respect about him or the agency that he created in April of 1830, the Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A question was asked of me quickly when I was visited by using complete-time Mormon missionaries from Utah in Tyler, Texas. “Wouldn’t it’s extremely good to have a dwelling prophet to guide and guide humanity in this most confusing global?” The senior of the 2 missionaries, named Burgess, had asked me this, and I had answered that “sure, it might be great indeed if God had referred to as a prophet to manual his human beings here on the earth.” So that reaction to their question started out my processive indoctrination into the Mormon Church, as an impressionable young man totally unaware of the scriptures discovered within the Holy Bible approximately prophets, which the Mormons claimed to just accept and accept as true with because of the word of God.

One factor led to another in the course of the early fall of 1970, as the 2 aforementioned Mormon missionaries met with me as soon as per week, for around six weeks, and told me pretty some things about Joseph Smith and his “Book of Mormon,” that I, for a few stupid cause, absolutely widespread at that time without questioning their validity according to with the Holy Bible. Though I had examined the Bible at some point of my young people and had memorized pretty a few verses in it, I hadn’t clearly understood what I’d study; that is, the actual gospel, or accurate news, of Jesus as discovered by way of the Savior and his Apostles within the New Testament, and prophesied with the aid of holy prophets within the Old Testament. I become absolutely ignorant about the Old Testament report, which made it smooth for these unscrupulously persuasive missionaries to guide me around by using the nose to believe in their nonsense and to do their bidding. In truth, the best analyzing that I was required to do in order for me to “achieve” a testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet, and of the Book of Mormon because the phrase of God, was selected chapters and verses from the Book of Mormon. There turned into no required analyzing from the Bible. During the periods of time in which the 2 missionaries met with me, they used a flannel board and plastic figures as a means of embellishing in my thoughts their six canned displays that they known as discussions. At the beginning of each of those displays, one of the missionaries continually requested me whether or not I had prayed approximately what they had advised me about Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon, and received a burning in my bosom as to the truthfulness of those things. Not having regarded at that point the genuine ancient fact approximately Joseph Smith and his Book of Mormon, that Smith was a charismatic charlatan and the book a nineteenth Century conspiratorial made from Smith’s, and his 0.33 cousin, Oliver Cowdery’s vivid imaginations, I turned into absolutely taken-in and duped via those missionaries, and was baptized into the Mormon Church in October of 1970. Hence, allow me to offer on this recounting what I could have said, and the way I might have responded, to those Mormon missionaries and the vast other Mormon ladies and men who had entered my life, had I regarded what I found out later, and now realize, about the Holy Bible and about the Lord Jesus Christ.

As to first query that I changed into asked, about the want for a dwelling prophet in the early-19th Century, I might have surely said that the entirety that was, and is, needed for a full and whole information of Jesus Christ and his superb gospel, is in the confines of the Holy Bible; and that if any man claimed to be a prophet, or a teacher, in the gift age, he wouldn’t say some thing however what has already been said in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible with the aid of holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Every scripture inside the Bible became given via holy men of God for doctrine, reproof, correction, and guidance in righteousness, that someone seeking to follow Jesus may be very well supplied in each way. There become a distinct motive why those Mormon missionaries hadn’t recommended me to study the Bible, however simplest the Book of Mormon. Had I study, and understood, the Old Testament, I might have found out that the God of the Old Testament, the ante-mortal Jesus, had set up some very stringent necessities for a being certainly one of his genuine holy prophets, and that Joseph Smith hadn’t fulfilled “any” of those exacting conditions. You see, there is another more-biblical book that the Mormons take delivery of because the phrase of God, that is filled with the evidences that conclusively show that Joseph Smith changed into a fake prophet. That book is called the “Doctrine and Covenants,” and is rarely cited by using Mormon missionaries in the course of those six canned shows, referred to as discussions, which prelude an attractiveness or rejection of Mormon doctrine by means of struggling Christians. In Jeremiah 14:14 (KJV), the prophet writes, “Then the Lord stated unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name: I despatched them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a fake imaginative and prescient and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit in their coronary heart.” This turned into written over 500 years after Moses had already written in Deut. 18:18, “I will increase them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto all of them that I shall command him.” Furthermore, the Lord maintains speaking in Deut. 18:20-22 (NIV), “If any prophet presumptuously speaks a phrase in my call that I did now not command him to speak or speaks in the name of different gods, that prophet need to die. However, you may say for your heart: How can we realize that Jehovah has not spoken the word? When the prophet speaks in the call of Jehovah and the word is not fulfilled or does no longer come true, then Jehovah did no longer talk that phrase. The prophet spoke it presumptuously. You must not fear him.” What does this imply? I suppose the that means of the words is pretty darn clear. If a man claims to be a prophet, like unto Moses, and makes a prediction, or prophecy, approximately what is to come back to skip, and if what he says, in every detail, does no longer come to bypass, the person is a fake prophet, and, if he were dwelling anciently, have to be put to demise. The Old Testament is full of examples of genuine prophecy given by way of real holy prophets of God. One of those examples is the prophecy given through Isaiah, in Isaiah 37:22-35(NIV), “Therefore for this reason says the Lord regarding the king of Assyria: “He shall now not come into this metropolis, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come earlier than it with defend, nor construct a siege mound against it. By the manner that he came, by the same shall he return; and he shall not come into this town,” says the Lord. “For I will protect this city, to keep it For My personal sake and for My servant David’s sake.” Isaiah had prophesied that the Assyrian Army, under the King of Assyria, could no longer shoot “one” arrow into the metropolis. Not one arrow, he said! Well, had one measly arrow been discharged from the bow of 1 irritating Assyrian soldier into the city, Isaiah might have added a fake prophecy in God’s call. But the file exhibits that no longer one arrow became shot into the metropolis, which made the prophecy true and faithful to God. In fact, every prophecy brought through God’s genuine anointed prophets was true and devoted to the Lord God, and turned out much like the prophet had they would.

At this juncture, the prophecies of Joseph Smith, Jr. May be tested and understood for what they had been, predictions made by using an uninspired man calling himself a prophet. Remember, if a person, presuming to be a prophet, predicts something to come back to pass in God’s name, every element of the prediction needs to come to skip. For example, If I claimed to be an anointed prophet of God and said, inside the call of God, that on Friday, May 12, 2017, at four:00 within the afternoon in Washington, DC, that it would start raining, and that it’d rain progressively till nine:00 and without delay stop, and then an earthquake would be felt during the arena. Well, shall we say that on that Friday it started raining at 3:00 in the afternoon and rained steadily till 6:00 and right away stopped, and no earthquake followed. Was my prophecy fulfilled in every detail? No, it wasn’t! It started raining on that Friday, however, the time element became not fulfilled, nor changed into the earthquake fulfilled. Therefore, I delivered a fake prophecy inside the call of God, for which I could have been put to death if I had been living in the course of the time of Isaiah. That turned into the penalty paid by means of fake prophets. Now allow’s observe one of the numerous prophecies delivered via Joseph Smith. Section 87 of the infamous book, the Doctrine, and Covenants, considered with the aid of Mormons to be their supply of doctrine and scripture, is supposedly a prophecy of the American Civil War brought by means of Joseph Smith on December 25, 1832. Let’s examine exactly what Smith said would manifest in Doctrine and Covenants 87:

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“Verily, hence saith the Lord regarding the wars as a way to rapidly come to bypass, beginning at the revolt of South Carolina, for you to subsequently terminate within the death and distress of many souls; And the time will come to that conflict may be poured out upon all nations, starting at this vicinity (During the American Civil War, conflict changed into not poured out on all countries. From 1861 to 1865, the rest of the world was pretty a good deal at peace). For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other international locations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it’s miles referred to as, and they shall additionally call upon other countries, to be able to shield themselves in opposition to different nations (The Confederacy did no longer call upon another state(s) than Great Britain for help); and then struggle will be poured out upon all nations (Again, war changed into no longer poured out to any on “all” nations all through the time period, 1861-65). And it shall come to skip, after many days, slaves shall upward thrust up against their masters, who will be marshaled and disciplined for conflict (The slaves that rose up against their masters had been simply very few, and those slaves have been not disciplined for conflict. In maximum cases they had been killed). And it shall come to bypass additionally that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall become particularly irritated, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation (This did not occur at all). And thus, with the sword and through bloodshed the population of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and bright lightning also, shall the population of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the intake decreed hath made a complete give up of all international locations (There have been no famines, earthquakes, plagues, or fierce thunder and lightning from heaven stated any place within the international from 1861-sixty five); That the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall cease to return up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore, stand ye in holy locations, and be no longer moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh speedy, saith the Lord. Amen.”

So right here, in the foregoing Section 87 of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants, are the words of Joseph Smith, which he proclaimed inside the call of Jesus Christ as a prophet of God. And in keeping with Deuteronomy Chapter 18, there are a few severe troubles with this so-known as prophecy. All Old Testament prophets always spoke in particular phrases, no longer in generalities, when they anticipated certain specific occasions that were to come to bypass. And while the ones actual and actual prophets stated particular occasions that were to occur inside a positive timespan, the one’s occasions passed off, and the prophecies were fulfilled within that particular span of time. Joseph Smith referred to specific activities that might come to skip during the time that “battle could be poured out on all international locations starting in South Carolina.” But struggle turned into not poured out on all countries, and the plagues, famines, and earthquakes that have been stated did not occur. So, if this unfulfilled prophecy had been given anciently with the aid of someone claiming to be a holy anointed prophet of God, that fake prophet might have been positioned to demise through the Israelites. Just assume, Isaiah made an historic prophecy, in the name of the Lord, that not one Assyrian arrow could fall on a particular town, and, of all of the heaps of Assyrian infantrymen that surrounded that city for the duration of a time of conflict, not an unmarried arrow was shot from an unmarried bow of one Assyrian soldier. That prophecy became completely fulfilled, but prophecies based upon guesses and probabilities, made speciously in the call of the Lord, are doomed to failure. This unique false prophecy is simplest one of the several false prognostications made with the aid of Joseph Smith, within the call of God, during his lifetime. Smith’s vanity became inexorably profound as he vainly presumed to have charismatic manage over the minds of the Mormon people, to make them someway accept as true with that he possessed the electricity of God. The information approximately this, and different, false prophecies made via Smith are clean, concise, and effortlessly understood, and you can most effective wonder how clever and educated Latter-day Saint males and females can read what’s contained on this, and different, improper statements made by way of Smith and keep religion in him as a true prophet of God. It is almost like placing faith in Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon as a true records of the ancient Native Americans, because the Mormon account of amazing herds of horses on the North and South American continents, and especially in Mesoamerica, prior to Columbus completely contradicts the correct anthropological record of ancient America taught in all main universities and proclaimed with the aid of the Smithsonian Institution. Believing within the fantastical productions of the flimflam guy, Joseph Smith, became, and is, very similar to setting faith in the truth of Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz,” Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes,” or Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” During the 1st Century, the Apostle James wrote, under concept from God, a very revealing scripture about faith in the New Testament, in James 1:26 (KJV), “If any man amongst you appear to be spiritual, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this guy’s religion is vain.” It is pretty apparent that Joseph Smith, the charismatic deceiver, and falsifier, turned into unable to bridle his tongue in his pretentious attempts to make his gullible disciples consider that he became a real prophet of God. Therefore, Joseph Smith’s religion changed into utterly and completely vain.

The Mormon missionaries persist in preying on the emotions of rank-and-document Christians who are humanly susceptible to deliberate fraudulent deception. I actually have tried in preceding articles to reveal what full-time Mormon missionaries will, and might not, inform their Christian investigators approximately Mormon doctrine, records, and theology. As I actually have revealed, if the Mormons discovered their true records, theology, and doctrine all through their six-presentation (discussion) income-pitch, proper Christians might ask them to leave and to never return. But these Mormon marketers will now not tell the truth about what they certainly trust! And this is a real truth!

Being privy to the deceptions of Mormonism, the productions of Joseph Smith, from earlier than 1820 until his lynching in 1844, is vital for the Christian who is seeking to remain proper and faithful to Jesus within the presence of persuasive heresies and doctrines of devils. By Joseph Smith’s phrases shall he be justified, and by using his words shall he be condemned. Jesus said this in Matthew 12: 37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by way of thy phrases thou shalt be condemned.” My prayer is that Christians may be very well armed with the phrases of Jesus and his Apostles, from the Holy Bible, and with the understanding about the devilish doctrines and prophecies of Joseph Smith before the Mormon missionaries will come knocking at their doors.